Heart rhythm pioneer George Klein is honoured with a new Western chair
A $4 million gift from two foundations, matched by Western, creates an $8 million endowed chair named for the electrophysiologist who founded the London Heart Rhythm Program.
Dr. George Klein, a pioneering electrophysiologist and professor at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, now has an endowed chair in his name. The Dr. George J. Klein Shah-Baylis Chair is funded by two gifts of $2 million each, from the Shah Family Foundation and the Gloria Baylis Foundation, matched by $4 million from Western, for $8 million in total.
Klein founded the London Heart Rhythm Program in the 1970s at London Health Sciences Centre’s University Hospital, and the program runs a clinical and research fellowship. He invented the implantable loop recorder, a long-term monitor for patients with recurrent unexplained fainting. He holds 12 U.S. patents and has trained more than 65 research fellows.
The chair is meant to help the program meet rising demand: about 25,000 pacemakers and 7,000 implantable cardioverter-defibrillators are implanted in Canadians each year. Frank Baylis, chair of the Gloria Baylis Foundation, called Klein “one of the giants in electrophysiology.”
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